Qlarifi, a London-based FinTech startup innovating credit reporting for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), has announced the successful completion of its €1.6 million pre-Seed funding round to bring repayment transparency to the BNPL industry.
The round was backed by a combination of HoneyComb Asset Management, Carthona Capital and a selection of angel investors including Australian rugby legend John Eales.
“Our reason for building Qlarifi was to create transparency and a fit-for-purpose solution to a problem that’s been frustrating us for too long. We’re proud that the industry has responded so positively. They’ve been crying out for the real time information Qlarifi provides,” said Alex Naughton, CEO and Co-founder of Qlarifi. “This funding round reflects the confidence our investors have in our mission, and enables us to take the next leap in our growth journey.”
Founded in 2023 by Alex Naughton and Loic Berthou, Qlarifi is reportedly the first real time BNPL consumer credit database. It provides underwriting data for BNPL lenders via consumers’ transaction history. With richer data, Qlarifi wants to enable lenders to make more informed underwriting decisions – helping both BNPL providers and consumers.
Their solution means that it isn’t just providers who will benefit, but also consumers who will be able to increasingly rely upon BNPL as a responsible lending product.
This milestone marks a significant step forward in Qlarifi’s journey to provide BNPLs with consumer credit data in real time. Qlarifi’s platform aggregates BNPL consumer credit data, creating a complete picture of customers’ borrowing and repayment history across different providers.
The funding will be used to build out a best-in-class real time data infrastructure using modern technology and drive customer acquisition across key markets.
“Qlarifi is tackling transparency in a booming industry that is demanding their solution. The response Alex, Loic and the team have already received will be important for both businesses and consumers in the ecosystem”, said John Eales, businessman and former Australian rugby captain. “It’s exciting to have the opportunity to invest in their journey.”
According to figures provided by Qlarifi, there are nearly 415k daily BNPL applications in the UK, dwarfing credit cards, the second most prominent form of lending, which sits at 68k per day, and the market is only growing. BNPL holds a 5% market share in e-commerce transactions, which is growing each year.
“We’re delighted to invest in Qlarifi as they work to transform the rapidly growing BNPL market,” said Dean Dorrell, Partner at Carthona Capital. “With BNPL becoming an even more dominant force, their focus on delivering next generation technology is perfectly timed to meet the industry’s evolving needs.”
“We saw an opportunity to enable lenders to make better informed underwriting decisions by utilising the rich and growing dataset of transactions, and to help consumers build a positive credit history through the responsible use of BNPL. To us it was clear – we’re glad that our investors agreed”, concluded Berthou.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/03/qlarifi-successfully-closes-e1-6-million-pre-seed-round-to-revolutionise-bnpl/
